My Years in the Folklore World

Chapter 811 Loop
Fifteen minutes later.

The taxi stopped in front of Bainiu Temple in the northern part of the city.

Although today is not a holiday, there are still people coming and going in front of Bainiu Temple, and the popularity of the incense is beyond Jiang Xinghuo's expectations.

Looking at Dayun Temple which was less than a hundred meters away diagonally opposite, there was still a constant stream of people and pilgrims. Jiang Xinghuo could see clearly that many pilgrims who came out of Dayun Temple went straight to Bainiu Temple.

Similarly, many believers coming out of Bainiu Temple also head for Dayun Temple. The main purpose is to treat everyone equally, without bias or favoring anyone.

Anyway, the two places are not far from each other. Even if you walk slowly, five minutes is enough to go back and forth.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the lintel of Bainiu Temple, then looked at Dayun Temple in the distance, and finally decided to enter Bainiu Temple first and have a good chat with the old abbot.

However, this matter may not be so easy. According to the driver, the old master suffers from Alzheimer's disease, and his disciples will probably not let him act alone. He may have to think of some ways.

I don’t know whether Bainiu Temple allows pilgrims to stay overnight here. If allowed, I can stay here tonight.

While Jiang Xinghuo was thinking about all this, he walked towards the Bainiu Temple. When he entered the temple, he saw the smoke of incense and the dim shadows making it difficult to see the whole picture. After walking around the huge incense burner in the courtyard, the Lingguan Hall came into view.

As the saying goes, whether you go up the mountain or not, you must first worship Wang Lingguan.

Generally speaking, in an orthodox Taoist temple, the first hall you see upon entering the mountain gate is the Lingguan Hall.

Inside the huge hall, the statue of Lingguan has his eyes wide open, holding a precious seal in his left hand and a golden whip in his right hand. He has red hair and golden armor, three eyes and red eyebrows, as if he can see the whole world and understand the world and people's hearts.

A large number of believers were kneeling in front of the Lingguan statue and worshipping wholeheartedly. Jiang Xinghuo also went over to join in the fun, holding three incense sticks in his hand and worshipping towards the Lingguan statue. But just after he had worshipped three times, when he was about to stand up and insert the incense into the incense burner, he suddenly discovered that the Lingguan statue, surrounded by the incense, was actually shedding two lines of blood and tears. However, the believers turned a blind eye to this, as if they did not see the blood and tears shed by the Lingguan statue.

This startled Jiang Xinghuo, and he subconsciously summoned black fire, which shaped like a strange python and kept spinning around him. But nothing unusual happened afterwards. The blood and tears on the Lingguan's face suddenly disappeared, as if they had never appeared.

"Dear believer, you can put the incense in the incense burner or in the incense pot outside."

Jiang Xinghuo was in a daze when he heard a voice in his ear. He turned around and saw a young Taoist priest in a green Taoist robe, looking at him with a smile on his face.

"Ah, thank you, Taoist Priest."

Jiang Xinghuo pretended to be enlightened and walked outside to put the incense in the incense burner.

"Master, please stay."

Jiang Xinghuo patted the dust off his hands and called out to the young Taoist priest who was about to leave.

The Taoist turned around and asked, "Is there anything else, layman?"

"Master, I am here from another place yesterday. I have heard that the old master of Bainiu Temple is a great practitioner, so I want to come and pay a visit. I wonder if you can introduce me to him?"

"You may not know this, but the master is old now, his health is not good, and his mind is a little muddled, so he is not seeing any outside visitors now. I am afraid that this may disappoint you."

A trace of apology appeared on the young Taoist's face.

Jiang Xinghuo continued to ask: "May I ask if Changbai Niu Temple allows outsiders to stay there?"

"I see that there are a few empty quiet rooms that can accommodate lay believers from outside to stay overnight, but unfortunately the lay believers arrived too late, and the quiet rooms were all occupied by believers. If the lay believers are not in a hurry to leave, there may be empty rooms in two days."

"That's really unfortunate. I'll have to come back to bother you later."

Jiang Xinghuo exchanged a few polite words with the young Taoist priest and was about to leave Bainiu Temple. However, he had not walked far when the young Taoist priest called him from behind.

"Please wait a moment, sir."

The young Taoist priest walked into the Lingguan Hall and came out after a while, holding a talisman folded into a triangle in his hand. He said, "This is a talisman blessed by the Lingguan Lord. You can keep it with you as a souvenir, or as a talisman to bless you with peace."

Jiang Xinghuo took the talisman, hung the red string on it around his neck, and said with a bow, "Thank you, Taoist priest."

"You are so welcome, I hope we will meet again if we are lucky enough."

After saying this, the young Taoist priest walked into the crowd and gradually disappeared without a trace.

Jiang Xinghuo gently stroked the amulet in his hand. The black fire was like strands of hair wrapped around it, but the amulet did not change at all.

"It seems that this is just an ordinary amulet..."

Jiang Xinghuo stuffed the talisman into his collar, turned around and left Bainiu Temple, and ran towards Dayun Temple not far away.

I don't know which weird person made the rule to open these two old enemies on the same street. Their scale and structure are quite large, not much different from those temples and Taoist temples in the deep mountains and forests.

Jiang Xinghuo walked into the temple, wandered around, and soon attracted the attention of a monk.

"Donor, what are you looking for?"

The person who spoke was a middle-aged monk who looked quite like a Buddha, especially his earlobes which were almost level with his jaw.

Jiang Xinghuo still said the same old thing, saying that he came from another place, but he changed his intention to pay a visit to the old abbot to wanting to pay homage to the old abbot's stupa.

Jiang Xinghuo originally thought that he would be rejected, but unexpectedly the other party agreed very readily and personally led him to the back of Dayun Temple.

Soon, they arrived in front of an open space.

A stone stupa stands in the middle of the open space, about three or four meters high and occupies only about one meter of land. It cannot be compared with those stupas in thousand-year-old temples, but it has its own Zen meaning.

"This is the stupa left behind by our master after his death. It was not originally open to the public, but there were so many believers who came to pay homage to our master that we had no choice but to open the stupa to the public so that the believers could come and pay homage to us."

"I will be waiting outside. Please feel free to go as you please."

As he spoke, the middle-aged monk walked behind the moon gate outside the open space, leaving Jiang Xinghuo alone here.

This saved a lot of trouble, and Jiang Xinghuo was happy about it. Seeing that no one was watching, he picked up a few branches from the ground nearby, broke them into shapes of different lengths, then drew a talisman on the ground, and placed a few branches on the talisman to piece together a pattern.

The method of summoning souls using dead branches.

This is a necromancy technique that Jiang Xinghuo obtained from the Maoshan Sect when he was exploring in the game. It was derived from the Green Bamboo Necromancy Technique, and the altar can be easily set up with just a few branches.

However, the success rate is relatively low, only about 20%, so whether it is possible to successfully summon the spirit is still unclear.

Besides, Jiang Xinghuo now has no other power except the black fire, so it is still unclear whether this dead branch soul-calling method will be successful.

Jiang Xinghuo set up the altar, then formed seals with his hands and suddenly tapped the center of the formation. The dead branches on the ground suddenly trembled continuously, as if they were about to jump up, but after jumping for a long time, they finally stopped and returned to calm.

The dead branches that formed a magic circle were also broken into two pieces in the middle, as if they were broken in half by someone.

"Failed?"

Jiang Xinghuo frowned slightly. He had never used this technique in real life before, so he didn't know whether it would be successful or not.

But judging from the broken branches, it was most likely a failure. Jiang Xinghuo tried several more times without giving up, but the result was still the same. Each time it kept shaking, then calmed down, and finally broke into two pieces. After trying several times, Jiang Xinghuo saw that there was no result, so he gave up on casting the spell, threw the broken branches aside, and wiped the talisman on the ground with his feet. After erasing all traces, he left the open space where the stupa was.

"Thank you, Master. After this memorial service, I have finally fulfilled a long-cherished wish of mine."

"Don't be polite, sir."

The middle-aged monk put his hands together and said with a smile: "This can be regarded as the fate between the donor and my humble temple. As the saying goes, every drink and every bite has its own destiny. The donor's coming here today is destiny."

Jiang Xinghuo stayed in Dayun Temple for a while and had a vegetarian meal at noon.

in the afternoon.

Jiang Xinghuo strolled around Yunchuan City again. This world, which he didn't know whether it was a parallel space or an illusion, really brought him some freshness.

Until the evening.

After having dinner outside, Jiang Xinghuo returned to the hotel where he was staying.

hotel lobby.

"Sir, please show me your ID card."

"Okay, wait a moment."

"Here is my ID card. If possible, please give me a last room."

Jiang Xinghuo handed over the ID and spoke softly to the front desk.

"The last room?"

"Are you sure you want to stay in the last room? It's not the peak tourist season now, and there are still empty rooms..."

The receptionist dissuaded him tactfully.

"No, I want the last room, thank you."

"Okay, here's your room card. It's on the 13th floor, on the left hand side when you exit the elevator. It's the last room. If you don't like it, you can always call the front desk and they will change your room for you."

"Okay, thank you."

Jiang Xinghuo took the room card, turned around and walked into the elevator.

But the moment he walked into the elevator, he suddenly felt a slight heat in his chest, and he suddenly woke up as if he had just had a long dream and was awakened from a state of confusion.

"how so?"

Jiang Xinghuo quickly took out the amulet from his chest, only to see that the triangular talisman made of cinnabar and yellow paper had turned black, as if it had been baked by fire.

Thinking back to the conversation I had with the front desk just now, it seemed like I said it when I checked in last night.

Jiang Xinghuo suddenly felt cold all over.

Am I trapped in some kind of cycle?
Moreover, his own cognition had also changed unconsciously. If it were not for the amulet on his chest that woke him up in time, he would have been trapped in the cycle like a puppet all day long.

But whether the situation is really as you guessed, you have to experience it yourself to know whether it is true or not.

Back in his room, Jiang Xinghuo walked to the window and used his mobile phone to take pictures of the street below, recording everything.

If I really fall into a loop, then the same situation will occur tomorrow night at the same time and in the same place.

Of course, he couldn't be so stupid as to wait until tomorrow night. He could also verify it during the day, such as going to Bainiu Temple and Dayun Temple again. The taxi driver was also a verification point.

Jiang Xinghuo lay on the bed, intending to just get through the night, but he fell into a deep sleep without realizing it. When he woke up the next morning, it was already bright.

After washing up, Jiang Xinghuo came to the lobby on the first floor and found that the front desk was empty, but the street outside was quite lively.

He didn't take it seriously and walked straight out of the hotel. The moment he walked out of the hotel door, he felt a burning sensation in his chest again. Jiang Xinghuo suddenly shuddered, and the feeling of waking up from a dream came over him again.

"hiss……"

Jiang Xinghuo took a deep breath and immediately took out the amulet. The amulet, which was already charred black, was now half burned. The scorch marks on it became heavier and heavier, and the cinnabar mark was a little difficult to see clearly.

Jiang Xinghuo's face looked a little solemn. He didn't expect that after a night, his cognition would change again. He had clearly noticed the problem last night, but after a night's sleep he had forgotten everything. This was a bit too outrageous.

"interesting……"

Jiang Xinghuo narrowed his eyes slightly, came to the place where he took a taxi yesterday, and stopped a taxi that was coming.

After getting in the car.

Jiang Xinghuo's pupils shrank slightly. This driver was exactly the same driver from yesterday.

But the other party didn't show any intention of saying hello at all.

Jiang Xinghuo got in the car and deliberately said, "Master, I came to Yunchuan from another place. I heard that there is a Taoist temple in the north of the city that is a neighbor of the Buddhist temple?"

After hearing Jiang Xinghuo's words, the driver said excitedly as he did yesterday:
"This is a great scenic spot in our Yunchuan. Monks and Taoists became neighbors. In the early years, there were many jokes about this. Some believers even started fighting on the spot. In the end, it was the old master of Bainiu Temple and the old abbot of Dayun Temple who stepped in to suppress the matter. Since then, the two Taoist temples have coexisted peacefully and are very popular. What a pity..."

Jiang Xinghuo's heart sank completely.

Because what the driver said was exactly the same as what he said when he was in the car yesterday, even the tone of voice did not change.

As if it was a pre-set program.

This also verified Jiang Xinghuo's inner thoughts that everything that happened in this city was constantly repeating itself.

Twenty-four hours is a limit.

Everyone is constantly repeating what happened in the past.

And strangers who enter here will have their cognition subtly changed and gradually become part of this world.

Jiang Xinghuo touched the amulet on his neck. If it weren’t for this amulet, he might have died here as well.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xinghuo looked a little melancholy and sighed softly in his heart. These seemingly living people were actually just false illusions, repeating the same actions every day without them realizing it.

Day after day, year after year.

It’s terrifying to think about days like this.

(End of this chapter)